Nokia N900 Review

The N900 is the first phone from Nokia based on the Maemo Platform. Nokia has expressed their intentions to use Maemo in high-end phones. The Nokia N900 is a Touchscreen, full QWERTY slider phone and one of most talked about members of the N-Series recently.

Does the first phone built on the top of this relatively new phone platform live up to it’s expectations ? Find out in our N900 review.

Maemo has been around since 2005

Maemo has been around since 2005 in the name of the Internet Tablet OS. The Nokia 770 pictured below was one of the first internet tablets from Nokia. Sadly, the internet tablets 700, N800,N810 never went mainstream and was sold only in limited countries. It was popular amongst the linux and hacker community but not amongst consumers.Some of the main drawbacks about these devices was that they were generally slow and lacked GSM / phone capabilities.

Linux meets Phone

The N900 is the first linux-based Phone from Nokia. The operating system on the Nokia N900 is Maemo 5 (Fremantle). Maemo is based on the popular Debian linux distribution. The N900 can be seen as an internet tablet with phone capabilities.

Package Contents

The phone comes in a black package with an image of the phone embossed on the top. This is pretty similar to the N97/ N97 Mini’s Box

Nokia N900 with a stylus

Nokia Battery (BL-5J)

Nokia High Efficiency Charger (AC-10)

Nokia Stereo Headset (WH-205)

Video out cable (CA-75U)

Nokia charger adaptor (CA-146C)

Cleaning cloth

User Guide

In addition to the above we also got a converter plug for old nokia chargers . There’s no memory card / extra stylus / carry case in the retail package.

Design

This is a touchscreen phone with a slide-out QWERTY keypad and it’s certainly big when you compare the N900 to other devices such as Nokia E72 or the iPhone . But We’ve had no issues holding the phone. It felt comfortable to grip. We have no complaints about the placement of controls on the phone except for the weird placement of the hardware-unlock key on the right. Its not the most pocketable phone out there but it still fits in your pocket.

In the front the screen is surrounded by a glossy bezel which bears the letters nokia on the left and n900 on the right. There are no physical buttons in the front, not even call and hangup keys.

Although the phone is designed to be used in the landscape mode for the most part , the phone functionality needs to be used in portrait mode as the earpiece , proximity sensor and video calling camera are present on the top when the phone is used in portrait mode.

You will also find a notification light which can toggle between white , blue and yellow.The is a speaker on either side of the phone which justifies the entertainment capability of the device.

On the left you would find the microUSB port which is used for both charging and PC connectivity .

On the right is the hardware unlock key , 3.5 mm audio jack which also serves as a TV-out.

The stylus finds a place at the bottom.

On the top sits the volume rocker keys , power button and the camera key.

On the rear sits the 5 Megapixel Camera surrounded by a kick stand. The camera shutter encloses the lens and the dual LED flash.

The microSD card slot is beneath the real panel which houses the battery and SIM card.

Display

The phone is designed to be used mainly in landscape mode and widescreen display is a proof of that. The 800×480 display is crisp and colors are reproduced quite well. Although the phone uses a resistive touchscreen, it’s very responsive and finger friendly.

Keyboard

The keyboard is made up of 3 rows and the keys provide good feedback. But since the long press for numbers was not there at the time of this review , it’s bit hard to use. But the keyboard is powerful as there are tons of a keyboard shortcuts available out of the box

Build Quality

Although the build quality of the phone is good , the plastic material used makes it feel a tad cheap considering the price of the phone. The phone does not make any noise when gripped and will certainly survive a fall or two. Wish Nokia uses some metal on Maemo phones in future. You would notice this especially when you put the N900 next to the N97 Mini which uses a lot of metal on the exterior. Sadly a huge percentage of users give a lot of importance to looks and the N900 might not win the Beauty Pageant for Mobile Phones if at all there was one. The N900 is a beast when it comes to multitasking and web browsing, but the looks are too soft.

UI Maemo 5

The Maemo UI is just lovely and there is lot of eye candy out of the box. The notifications system esp for incoming messages is super cool. The interface certainly has a learning curve but any sensible user will pick it up easily. The multitasking is just fabulous and demonstrates the power of Maemo

This is what you call multitasking

Phone

Call quality was pretty good and the phone functionality is pretty simple and easy to use. One cool feature is the integration of contacts with Google Talk / Skype contacts. One downside of the phone app is a lack of DTMF support out of the box. Signal strength was never an issue on GSM or 3G. And the best part is Skype calling right from your phonebook.

Connectivity

Since this device evolved from an internet tablet , connectivity is flawless. You can choose to automatically switch to Wi-Fi from 3G / GPRS when you are near a hotspot. The only issue is many phone networks don’t support automatic configuration of access points on the phone. So you might have to go the manually route.

The GPS receiver gets a fix pretty soon and is pretty accurate.

Messaging

The Maemo 5 OS uses the concept of Conversations to group your SMS and IM such as Google Talk , Skype. This is good if you communicate a lot and don’t want to juggle between apps.

There is no native MMS support from there is a already a app from the community which brings MMS

Email works pretty well and there is support for all a lot of email providers such as gmail,yahoo,hotmail and exchange . There is support for multiple accounts and multiple attachments. it supports full HTML content within the email.

Web Browsing

This device deserves the title of the best internet device. Considering the fact that this device has it’s roots in an Internet tablet it does not disappoint. In fact it amazes.The N900 has one of the best browsers in the market and brings PC-like browsing to the palm of your hand.

The Flash 9.4 support means that you can view full flash content within a webpage. Youtube, Vimeo are work fine. You can even connect the phone to your TV and watch the action on the big screen.

Watch the speed test of the N900 over 3G and Wi-Fi which uses the Flash capability

The Browser does not support multiple tabs but you have to open multiple windows. Zooming into a webpage is accomplished by double tapping , circular motion or using volume keys.

There’s a special hover mode which lets you use select text using a cursor and interact with page elements. You can invoke this mode by swiping your finger from the left of the screen. Swiping from the right side shows your browsing history for that window in a visual manner.

You can also install the AdBlock Plus plugin so that you can disable ads and save some bandwidth. You can also save web pages and later view them offline.

Memory

The device comes with 32 GB of inbuilt memory and has a microSD slot which supports upto 16GB cards.

Multimedia

Camera

The Camera does take some great pictures and the fixed focus video recording which enables macro video recording is cool. But sadly the camera application is a bit slow. You might actually miss the moment in the process of capturing. The sharing plugins like pixelpipe make photo sharing and blogging a piece of cake. You can even email multiple photos and upload them in a jiffy

Apps

This is one area where we feel let down. The impressive hardware does not have apps which utilize the hardware like on other platforms.

Apps worth mentioning are Qik (video broadcasting), Angry Birds which is a cool game, Pixel Pipe which makes photo/video sharing a piece of cake. There is also Sketch which lets you draw on a canvas.

There is a Documents-To-Go viewer edition trial which lets you view office docs. The news from the maemo community is that KOffice is available.

Skype works flawlessly including SkypeOut calls.

There are some apps which have been developed by the community and the linux nature of the platform might bring a lot more apps to the platform. Nokia just needs to bring more developers on board the Maemo platform.

Baseball game developed by India Games for Maemo

We hope to see more applications in the coming months / years for the Maemo Platform as Nokia has grand plans for Maemo with a Maemo6 device expected to launch towards end of this year.

Battery Life

The 1320 mAh battery on the device practically lasts for a day and half of light use and just about a day for heavy use. As with all phones it lasts longer over Wi-Fi compared to 3G / EDGE. The spec sheets don’t indicate battery life .At Nokia World , we heard that battery life was linked to user behavior and the device was built to last a day for average use. We don’t complain about the battery life but a 1500 mAh battery would have given that extra run time ! And one tip , you don’t have wait for the battery to go empty before charging the device. Charge it when the the battery indicator is at about 50% and its charges faster.

What’s Hot

Maemo UI and Notifications

Crisp 800×480 pixel Display

Mutitasking

Multiple Homescreens and Widgets

Browser

Skype , IM

Email client with HTML support

5MP Camera with Fixed Focus Recording

Responsive touchscreen

Barely need to use stylus

Divx Movie playback.

Audio quality though headphones

USB Charging

OTA updates

GPS

PDF Reader , File Manager

What’s Not

Slow Camera app

No Long press for numbers / symbols.

Weird placement of Hardware unlock key

Lack of Portrait mode

Lack of Apps

Limited Settings and Configurations when compared to other Nokia phones

No Multitouch

Conclusion

If you are a person who loves to be online 24/7 , be it browsing the web, chatting with friends or checking email the N900 is a great option. It’s a must have gadget for Linux enthusiasts or hackers. This is not for the average consumer but a geeky crowd. If you are one of those geeks you won’t be disappointed. And if you are a fan of Open Source the N900 is for you ! Although the N900 lacks in a few areas , it’s pretty powerful in some areas. It’s the first phone based on the Maemo platform and it’s obviously not complete. Maemo is a new ray hope for Nokia and the N900 is a live example of that hope . You may want to experience it or wait for the next device

Screenshots

Varun Krish is a Mobile Technology Enthusiast and has been blogging about mobile phones since 2005. His current phones include the Nokia Lumia 1020 , Apple iPhone 5S & Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition. You can follow him on Twitter @varunkrish and on Google+ You can also mail Varun Krish

I first wrote to NOKIA on Feb 02, 2011 and in a return mailer it was ensured that my issues will be resolved in 5 Working days.

But, till date nothing has happened. If you expect me to forget this, its impossible and if you are testing endurance of your dissatisfied customers then I am here to fight till I win.

Few of my issues with NOKIA N8 are :

1. Internet browsing is dead slow & disappointing.
2. Configuration of mail does not happen.It says ‘Configuration failed, try later’
3. Information related to processor type/speed and RAM/ROM is missing on ‘specification’ page on website, in spite of the

fact that this info is vital and other good cellphone makers are giving this important info on their website.
I want to ask why this info is missing, which led me to buy inappropriate costly product.

4. Control keys of NOKIA stereo headset WH-701 supplied with N8-00 does not work
5. Log shows only last 20 entries in spite of selecting ’30 days’ option. This means set is not capable of showing 30 days log as claimed at website.
6. Saving matter / message as template is very elaborate & we can’t give template name.
7. Camera Photos are clicked with yellow/ reddish tint.

Expedite, as in view of above said I want to return this phone to seller & want my payment refund.

Thanks & Regards
Rajiv Sharma

Thomas

Hi again,

I wrote earlier about my gripes about the Nokia N900 and now I got fed up with waiting for that it might potentially be possible to run Android (NitDroid project) on it some day in order to replace the utterly useless, bug infested phone apps on the N900.

I cut my losses and sold the N900 to a friend. It was important to me to hand it off to someone else without false promises as I did not want to screw someone else like I got screwed by Nokia. My friend knows the N900 is total crap as a phone, but he is a programmer and will install his own Linux distribution on it and use it as a mobile computer.

I bought a HTC Desire Z two weeks ago and I absolutely love it! It is everything and more than what Nokia pretends the N900 is. It has more or less the same form factor that tricked me into buying the N900 in the first place, but, the HTC is running a much more streamlined OS (Android) and I have been able to replace the stock phone, address book, and calendar apps with some that fit my needs perfectly. The screen is a bit larger and the it seems like the processor is faster (more responsive, faster loading of apps etc.).

Good bye and good riddance to my N900. Nokia is black-listed for life and will never see me as a customer again!

If you go ahead and buy the N900, then do not say that you were not warned. If you want to get rid of your N900, then I hope you will get rid of it in an ethical manner (find a techie to sell it to; it is a perfect match for a someone who will appreciate it as a powerful Linux mini-computer, but does not need it as a phone).

Br,

Thomas

vinod

well, for starters, N900 was never targeted at the regular user. It was meant to be used by the ‘self-proclaimed’ nerds of the sorts, and they love the device. If you ask me, N900 has indeed reached the intended consumers. the N900 was not a mass market product but clearly aimed at a niche market.
Thus it is not surprizing that it doesn’t appeal to mass market.

rajesh

(rajesh.rajesh@live.in) hey friend if u decided to buy nokia N900 and if u think it will support nokia unlimited download music, google map and other famous applicatons too then i suggest you don’t buy coz this is worse handset even in the world. it disconnect people. iphone and other android phone is more better then nokia

Shuan

There is no better phone than N900,its only that very few people deserve to have it and love it,its not a toy-phone,its more than computer.

http://www.primarpartners.in Sanju gupta

I’m agree with my frnd shuan …
It’s more then computer … I like it more thn any thing

http://non usmanjani

I agree with u shaun and gupta. It,s really more than a computer. If somebody do not understand this he is I think senseless.

Rajvenesh Panjolia

Do not buy Nokia N900 Phone!!!

I was not expecting in this era a phone with such a high Price and such a low battery. It is like fitting the battery of a small Car in to big Truck. I have always fear of loosing the battery when I go out of the city. I dont pick up the calls in the fear of loosing the battery. This is very risky to loose the network.
Nokia Should definitely recall the battery for this phone in order to meet the buyer’s expectations. I bought this phone at high price because this was the Nokia phone. The same features are available in the other brands for 20% of the Price of the Nokia N900.

If Nokia does not care about the brand Image, then we should find some local manufaturer to provide the robust battery for Mobile Charger. Carry the mobile charger in one hand and phone in Other hand.

vinod

check it again bro….mine last for 2 days..probably some problem with urs…

Shuan

Reinstall Firmware with Nokia software updater,99% problem will be solved.

Abhishek singh

TATTI WALA PHONE

Shobith

Nokia are now saying they have stopped the production of N900! I was just about to buy it in the Nokia showroom but they said they did not have stock of the phone as it has been stopped! It is a great disappointment for me but I bought a Samsung Galaxy Ace afterwards because I don’t want Nokia Symbian phones! Android and Maemo 5 are damn better than Symbian!

http://Www.fonearena.com Raja

Are the operating system symblan is good or linux mamemo5 ?? Plz reply

http://www.1n5.ru/ Roman

GPS though also is, but works somehow strange, the error at once can be 4 meters, in another of 4 km (though in the street always works precisely), and that the strangest – asks for an Internet..

Vipul

This is a waste of money. It’s totally use less phone. there are so many bugs in this phone. we will not suggest for this N900.

If anyone is using it, who purchased this from gulf, please throw it asap. JAGGO GRAHAK JAGGO

JANHIT ME JARRI

Tani

purchasing this phone is waste of money…………
too many bugs in this phone specially in 32 GB model…
plz dont go for this phone.

It may be blast at any time,as one of my friend purchased it from gulf. it got blast.

If you purchase this phone from gulf, please throw it ASAP.
JANHIT ME JARRI

Guys plz dont buy nokia phones..waste mobile…go for some other with same config n cheaper aswell….nokia is so costly with full problems..they often ask us to upgrade the software wr they release daily a software ..anna, belle, bhabhi, mustach, upperlimb lowerlimb, stomach , pen**** etc etc…
nokia sucks .
they released c7 with ^3 then they said to upgrade anna later they released 701 new mobile with the same phone with belle os..ppl buy 701 n they hav to upgrade the upcoming software…ppl waste their time by buying nokia ..
plz dont waste time by getting nokia phone…